Urbanite Collective

Street Artist Transforms Ordinary Public Places Into Funny Installations 

A while back, I began doing some visual preference surveys on my Facebook and Twitter feeds. Here are the results from one such survey that inquired about various types of streets supporting single family homes.

Question: On which of these streets would you most desire to live? 

And here are the results:

It’s pretty clear that B & C dominated the poll. So what are the key differences between those two choices and A? Beyond that, what are the similarities between B & C which made them so consistent? Here’s what I see:

1. Trees. The primary visible feature in B & C, other than the street itself, are the trees. There is not only a dense canopy which shades the public space and softens rigid structures, but the placement of the trees between the curb and sidewalk provides a physical and psychological barrier between passing cars and pedestrians. Finally, by “closing in” the street itself, the trees likely have a calming effect on drivers, subconsciously encouraging them to slow down––a highly desirable behavior in residential areas.

2. Home and Site Disposition. The homes along Streets B & C use their land in a distinctly different way than Street A. The primary visual feature of the homes in Street A is their garage––the garage protrudes further into the public realm than the front door. In Streets B & C, the facade or the entryway is more visible than the garage. In Street C in particular, it is clear that some homes along the left side have hidden, rear-entry garages, completely removing this “service area” from view.

3. Vertical Curbs. Although an often overlooked feature in cities, the humble curb can have an impact in several ways. Like street trees, vertical curbs send a silent message of “risk” to drivers––if you leave the roadway, something will go bump. Furthermore, they do a better job of preventing residents from parking in their yard, which judging by how often our code enforcement office receives these complaints, can be unsightly to adjacent neighbors. 

The bottom line? More than any other feature, the trees in B & C make people feel better about calling this street home. Streets B & C convey a message that they are safer and more comfortable than Street A, and that translated into a higher desirably for respondents.

If you’d like to participate in future surveys, or just keep up with the goings-on of a Conway city planner, find me on social media:

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When city budgets are tight, simple things like repainting crosswalks often find the chopping block. (Like me, you may have already noticed this around Conway.) Small challenges like this can be overcome with a dose of ingenuity.  By transforming some of our crosswalks into volunteer-led public artwork, cities can strengthen their local art communities, make the crosswalks safer to pedestrians by amplifying their visibility to drivers, and finally, save the taxpayers money on labor, as we’d only be on the hook for the cost of paint. 

When people ask for speedbumps in their subdivision, what they really want is for cars to drive slower. Narrower streets and shade trees can solve that.